Yesterday I noticed that the top shiny plastic cover of the top case was missing.

I have no idea how it happened, but I have two hypothesis, with one being more possible than the other.
Okay, forgive some of the photos as they’re stills from my helmet camera:

This is a shot after I arrived to work on the morning of 10/09/2013. See the shiny black plastic top? Also, see the blue oval sticker on the front? That might be important for why my top case cover went missing.

Now look at this:

Not glossy! This is the raw underbelly of the top part of my E55.

I forgot to take a picture of it, but the word “INDIAN” was carved into the plastic.

Unfortunately I didn’t turn my camera on until I’d already mounted my bike, and I don’t remember if the cover was attached when I left work that day.

There are two holes near the back of the top case. Two plastic attachment pieces hold the cover shell in place via screws.

Both were snapped in half:

So, two things could have happened:

The top case cover failed somehow and flew off the bike on the highway.

Someone ripped the cover off my top case.

Motorcycles are subject to strain due to vibration and wind. They also encounter corrosive agents and the elements like cars do. However, I don’t think both of the attachment points on my top case would have failed, especially so violently. I could accept that the metal screws might wear down the plastic mounting points and come free, but that’s not what happened here.

The cover mounting holes.

I have (had) a Vote No sticker on my top case. There was a marriage amendment on the books here last year that would have defined marriage as between one man and one woman. That’s some dumb shit, so of course I didn’t support it. Vote No became synonymous with gay rights here, and every once in awhile you encounter people who don’t agree with freedom.

When I worked downtown someone scratched the sticker with a key. It would be easy to further deface the sticker in the relative safety of a parking deck corner.

The odd thing about the vandalism idea is that the cover was nowhere to be found. I doubt someone would rip the cover off and then just leave it. Also, the rest of my bike was untouched.

It’s possible someone tried to pry the top case cover to open the lid, but I’d definitely expect a mangled cover.

Since I didn’t record the top case on my way home (and I don’t remember it being there or not) the fate of my Givi E55 cover will be a mystery.